In the prior art, the use of outboard marine heat exchangers for cooling the coolant of marine engines is well-known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,993 to Fernstrum discloses one type of an outboard marine heat exchangers, this patent herein incorporated in its entirety by reference. In these types of heat exchangers, cooling tubes are interposed between water headers. Extending from each header is a nipple, the end of each nipple adapted to connect to hoses to provide communication with the marine engine cooling system. The nipples are threaded to receive a nut, the nut being used to secure the headers against the hull of a vessel.
One drawback associated with the heat exchangers described above relates to the incompatibility with double hull marine vessels that are being constructed or specified by customers with increasing frequency. The second or inner hull of these double hull vessels provides a safety feature should the integrity of the outer hull of the vessel be compromised. While these double hull marine vessels offer improvements in safety, they complicate the attachment of the prior art outboard marine heat exchangers thereto. More particularly, the threading of the nut onto the header nipple must be done between the double hulls, this area being difficult to access for either marine heat exchanger installation or removal.
Other marine vessels have isolation tanks or cofferdams to surround the heat exchanger coupling to the engine cooling system. The presence of these structures surrounding the nipple and nut of the marine heat exchanger also complicates the heat exchanger's installation and removal.
In view of the drawbacks in prior art heat exchangers noted above, a need has developed to provide an improved heat exchanger which is more easily secured to either a single hull or a double hull vessel. The present invention solves this need by providing a outboard marine heat exchanger which is easily adapted to single hull or double hull marine vessels.